Turnaround School Leader Organizational Priorities: Topics and Trends in 90-Day Planning

• In Event: 58.021 - Policy Implementation at the Building Level: Leaders and Systems

Abstract

School turnaround literature is characterized by slim empirical research but frequently emphasizes the importance of school leaders prioritizing vision building and goal alignment. Most school improvement plans, however, are often excessively long and seldom leveraged as a living document. Thus, iterative, focused, short-term action plans collaboratively designed between school and district leaders that establish a finite number of goals for each semester could be a compelling alternative for principals in turnaround context. In this study, we review the 90-day plans of turnaround schools to investigate what school principals leading initiatives most frequently try to address in early stages of turnaround efforts and if and how those focuses change over time.

Authors

• Bryan A. VanGronigen, University of Virginia

• Coby Meyers, University of Virginia

• Dallas Hambrick Hitt, University of Virginia